“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:33

The Bread of Life

 Today my “through the Bible” reading was John 6. What a precious treasure! This passage is about the feeding of the 5,000 miracle and the people’s questions. Jesus’s words are so profound and clear, when we read slowly and sometimes out loud.

God’s Word is fresh and living even though I’ve read and studied it before. The simplicity of Jesus’s words to those who believe with open hearts is clear.

He addresses the importance of priorities—to look to Jesus first. “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal upon Him” (John 6: 27).

Our labor or work is believing in Him, and all other works flow from that belief in which the Holy Spirit enables us to do His will. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).

 The “bread of life” defined in today’s verse: He, Jesus, is the Bread of Life! “I am the bread of life” (vs. 48). “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (vs. 50).

 Eating of this bread is living in love with Jesus because He is our food and our eternal hope. He meets us right where we are as we believe and abide in Him, feeding on His sustenance.

“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (vs. 56-57).

 This passage is intimate and personal. Jesus became the Bread of Life when He gave Himself for the sins for the world. We indulge and embrace this life by believing with wide open hearts, trusting by obedience to all His Word says. We eat of the Bread of Life, focused on the things of His Kingdom, not this empty world. Only Jesus can truly satisfy our hunger.  He laid down His life and gave His flesh in obedience to the Father to pay the unpayable debt of sin. We are free to embrace this truth and embrace His will no matter how hard it seems sometimes. We can live in the light of His grace and purpose as His Word describes.

Obedience is hard sometimes because my fleshly desires rebel and want the seemingly easy way. But in the nurture of His truth that He is the Bread of Life, I can endure and be sustained by His Word as the Holy Spirit guides. May we all be strengthened to endure pain, and the hard things of daily life as we trust His sustenance.

Lord Jesus, thank You that You are the Bread of Life. You are our sustenance. May we indulge in Your tasty Bread and all that entails. We worship You. Amen.